The importance of friends

What a mess of photos at the bottom you readers probably think….well, life is at times a mess, which it always definitely is when you once again break up and leave a relatively known and settled life, for something new and unknown, but so much more interesting! Settled life is not for me! Time to move into the unknown, Yemen, the Arabic world and language, gee, what a privileged life!

However, I still haven´t made it to Yemen. Right now I am sitting at the airport in Istanbul waiting for a delayed flight to Sanaa. I really left Stockholm 6 days ago to go and visit one of my very best friends, Barry Moss, in the UK, well, Barry is one of the nicest humans I know. What he has done, and still is, doing for me, is as good as it gets in life between friends. And this time, not only did he fill me with good, fat and tasty English food during my visit to him in Orford, but he also invited me to the best dinner I have ever been to before. At the Travellers Club in London. Barry is not only a statesman like person, but chairman of the British Chapter. The dinner, it was full of some of the globes most interesting people, of which one was another of my best friends, Ollie. Amazing lot of characters…I have read books written by many of these authorities regarding their own specialties, everything from the Inca Empire to deep water diving, well, a great dinner! One that I left me full of positive attitude, champagne, expectations and a perspective of life. Before the dinner I rushed through London to met another great guy, a person, I believe will make a difference in life, for me and many others! Sam!

After leaving London I returned quickly back to Stockholm to change planes and say goodbye to my very good friends, not easy. Never easy. It is a feeling of slowly dying inside. Every time.

So I set off leaving Stockholm midday yesterday ending up in this great city named Istanbul late midnight, where another one of my very best friends, Dogan, had set me up with a journalist friend of his, Andrés, who together with another friend of his, another journalist from Spain, both so clever, so full of insight and wisdom, that I just feel a lot of hope for the future! And I just thought most of the media were just ignorant….;-)

I feel stuffed, a tiny bit unstable, but very happy!

Below a bunch of photos describing it all, caught by the mobile of mine…so quality is poor…it won´t be from now on. Next report from Yemen!